The first aircraft to visit Skien was an air show held by Pierre Chanteloup at Gråtenmoen in Solum in 1914.

[6] The lecture spurred municipal and commercial interest in an airport, and within days there were carried out investigations of possible sites, notably Gråtenmoen, Vallermyrene and Geiteryggen.

The plans were completed in January 1935 and in 1936 the airport committee held meetings with among others Minister of Labor Ole Monsen Mjelde.

It used fields at Vallermyrene as an airfield during summer, the iced Gunnekleivfjorden and Børsesjø during winter, as well as Tønsberg Airport, Jarlsberg.

[9] Grenland's first airline was Telemark Flyselskap, which was founded by Sigvard Nicolaisen in 1947 and at first operated a single Piper Cub.

[10] The runway and original facilities at Geiteryggen were built by the aviation club and cost 30,000 Norwegian krone (NOK).

[17] The airline took delivery of a Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer in 1963 and the following year established a scheduled service to Oslo Airport, Fornebu.

Fjellfly was the only Norwegian airline to operate the Twin Pioneer, which was chosen because it was the only aircraft with a capacity of sixteen passengers able to land on the short strip.

This limited the capacity to ten passengers, but unlike a regular concession, the airline did not have an obligation to fly the route.

[27] In early 1976, Norving launched plans for a taxi route between Stavanger Airport, Sola and Skien.

It was protested by Haugesund-based Nordsjøfly, who had started linking Haugesund to Stavanger and Bergen, and did not want another regional airline in Rogaland.

[31] In October 1979, Norving started a route taxi service between Skien and Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik.

[38] The upgrades allowed Norving to start operating the Dornier 228 at Geiteryggen, following improvements to the runway and instrument landing system.

The runway was extended to 1,400 meters (4,600 ft), a new terminal building was constructed and Norving built a new hangar with space for three Saab 340.

[45] Coast Aero Center received permission to fly from Stord Airport, Sørstokken via Skien to Oslo in 1987.

It originally operate a ten-seat Beechcraft Super King 200,[46] but quickly went over to the larger de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter.

[47] Permission was granted in 1988 to operate direct flights from Stord to Oslo, and the service to Skien was dropped.

[48] Teddy Air was established in 1989 and began services from Skien to Fornebu the following year, initially using a Britten-Norman Islander.

[60] Vildanden was founded on 23 November 2004 by 18 local investors who wanted to resume commercial scheduled flights from Skien Airport.

[59] In October 2004, a contract was signed with Coast Air, who would operate a Jetstream 31 aircraft between Skien and Bergen.

[65] During 2006, the ridership increased, and Vildanden started becoming more aggressive against Widerøe, which was flying to Bergen from Sandefjord Airport.

This included a second aircraft, allowing the airline to start operations to Stavanger and Molde Airport, Årø in 2007.

In exchange, the management of Vildanden had to raise new capital equal to at least half the companies accounts payable, which was NOK 8 million.

The financial risk would be taken over by the municipal-owned Kontorbygg, who operate a range of offices and commercial buildings in Skien.

[72] As a response, the Federation of Norwegian Aviation Industries reported the municipality to ESA, and demanded that NOK 20 million in illegal subsidies be repaid by Vildanden and the airport operator.

[75] During the winter of 2008–09, Vildanden was forced to land at Sandefjord Airport fifty times due to weather closing Geiteryggen.

Local Liberal Party politician Gustav Søvde stated that he was opposed to Widerøe advertising in the Telemark press for their services.

The air traffic control, consisting of an aerodrome flight information service, receives subsidies of NOK 6 million per year from the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

There are several hangars at the airport, one used by Danish Air Transport, one by Pegasus Helicopter, one by Grenland Flyklubb and one used by various private owners of aircraft.

General aviation activities at the airport includes several aviation clubs, including Grenland Flyklubb, which operates three aircraft, the parachute club Grenland Fallskjermklubb and base for Russian Warbirds of Norway, which operates heritage Russian military aircraft.